Citation: Greene, Pittonia 4:46 (1899).

Synonymy: Verbena nodiflora L., Sp. Pl. 20 (1753); Lippia nodiflora (L.)Michaux, Fl. Bor. Am. 2:15 (1803); Zapania nodifiora (L.)Lam., Tabl. Encycl. 1, 59:t. 17, fig. 3 (1791).

Common name: Lippia, fog fruit.

Description:
Perennial creeping herb; stem much branched, mostly rooting at the nodes, usually 30-90 cm long, with slender procumbent or ascending flowering branches, hoary with closely appressed hairs or nearly glabrous; leaves obovate, spathulate or oblanceolate, sometimes elliptic or cuneiform, narrowed into a short petiole, more or less fleshy, 1-7.2 cm long, 0.4-2.5 cm wide, coarsely toothed above the middle, minutely puberulent or glabrous, the venation usually inconspicuous; petiole 1-8 mm long.

Peduncles axillary but only one to each pair of leaves, 1-11 cm long; spikes at first short and ovoid, and sometimes very small, at length cylindrical, dense, 1-2.5 cm long when mature, 6-9 mm diam., many-flowered; bracts closely imbricate, the leaves ovate-oblong, long- acuminate, the higher ones obovate, ovate-triangular above the cuneate base, acute, green or violet, more or less fringed or toothed at the end; flower-buds purple; calyx shorter than the bract, membranous, flat, deeply 2-cleft, slightly 2-keeled, c. 1.5 mm long; corolla purple or pink to white; tube c. 2 mm long; limb at first white, afterwards lilac with a darker eye, 2-2.5 mm across, the lower lip twice as long as the upper one and about half as long as the tube.

Fruit c. 2 mm long, splitting at maturity into 2 mericarps, each 1-seeded.

	Flowering branch, flower, opened flower, bract and two lipped calyx.
Image source: fig. 544B in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Published illustration: Small (1933) Manual of the south-eastern flora, p. 1140; Moldenke (1973) Ann. Miss. Bot. Gard. 60:fig. 3; Cunningham et al. (1982) Plants of western New South Wales, p. 568.

Distribution:  Widely distributed throughout subtropical and tropical parts of the world. Found in moist or wet soil of fields, lawns, hillsides, riverbed edges or ponds, and thickets.   W.Aust.; N.T.; Qld; N.S.W. Conservation status: naturalised Flowering time: mainly Oct. — April.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available